Improved process for making transparent soap



=UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MORGAN W. BROWN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVED PROCESS FOR MAKING TRANSPARENTSOAP.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 78,182, dated May 26, 1868.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MORGAN W. BROWN, of the city of New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Mode or Process for the Manufacture of a Pellucid or Transparent Soap; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof.

The nature of my invention consists in the mode of treating and converting a readyformed (soluble) detergent soap into a clear,

transparent soap, by the use and application of glycerine as the radical, and a carbonated or caustic alkali as auxiliary, to the production and conversion of a hard, ready-formed, soluble soap, by the use of such quantities, and by the means of digesting and settling, as are sufficient to fabricate a transparent soap by the mode or process and the materials hereinafter specified, and to be used as a barsoap, or as afancy or toilet soap, for washing and cleansing purposes.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe the process or mode of treating and converting any ready-formed soluble soap into a transparent or semi-transparent soap.

First. I proceed to dissolve or melt any settled curd or grained soaps (as taken ofl from the salt lees, before the same is settled or the niger taken therefrom, in either case, although a ready settled or finished soap is preferable) in a digester, or any suitable vessel where heat can be conveniently applied to the contents. As soon as the soap is melted and hot, pour into it from twenty-five to thirty pounds of sal-soda, previously melted without water, to every hundred pounds of soap, while hot. I then agitate the soap and solution of sal-soda well together, and very thoroughly incorporate the paste at a low degree of heat, as it mixes much better than at a high degree of heat. I can use a much larger quantity of the carbonated alkalieven seventy-five or one hundred pounds to the one hundred pounds of soap-to advantage; but from twenty-five to thirty pounds gives the best result.

Second. I now pour slowly into the digester, containing the hot soap, from one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five pounds of concentrated glycerine to every hundred pounds of the soap previously melted. I keep up a very moderate heat, and agitate the whole until it is a liquid, and thin as a sirup, while it is hot, and as soon as it forms a thin transparent fluid I let it settle well under cover. The glycerine is best where it is used white and concentrated, and in about the proportions herein specified, viz: one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five pounds concentrated glycerine; twenty-five to thirty-five pounds sal-soda melted without water; one hundred pounds pure No. l bar-soap, dry and hard, which gives two hundred and sixty pounds transparent soap.

Third. Now draw off the settled fluid soap from a cock, placed near the bottom of the digester, into the cooling-molds or soapframes, and as soon as it is cold and hard Icut it in bars or cakes, in the usual manner, or cast in molds, press, &c. I also use perfumes and colors, if required.

Fourth. I do not find it necessary to use a tight cover, as there is no danger in this process from fire or from evaporation. The transparent soap by this process does not curl or shrink or become too hard by age.

All of the raw materials used by me in this process, as well as the ready-formed soap used, are of the best quality as to the purity of them; but, by great care and practical application, a very good product can be made from more common materials.

' For the purpose of producing the transparent soap by the above-described process or mode of treatment, I claim the employment of at least one hundred parts of the glycerine, and over that quantity, to produce a fine transparent soap, to every one hundred parts of good dry, hard soap, by the process herein specified, although a somewhat smaller quantityI use in some cases; but the product is not so pellucid.

I claim the use of just such quantities of the materials herein set forth, and by the process of treatment described, that will convert or transform any ready-formed, soluble, opaque soap into a transparent or semi-transparent soap.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-- The means and mode of treating and settling a soluble hard soap, as herein described, to render the same transparent, substantially as specified and set forth.

MORGAN W. BROWN.

Witnesses:

WM. F. MGNAMARA, Tnno. Tnscnn. 

